The Joker is one of the most iconic supervillains ever created. His legendary rivalry with Batman has sparked some of the greatest comic books DC has put out, including classics like The Killing Joke and The Man Who Laughs. It’s easy to see why the Clown Prince of Crime is so beloved, as not only does his antagonizing of Batman bring out the best in both of them, but the Joker is just a charismatic, impactful villain on his own. He’s a clown who only wants to make himself laugh, and can only do that by causing as much pain as possible. The Joker is a bundle of murderous evil wrapped in a cackling package, and somehow, his twisted sense of humor is impossible to look away from.
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That mess of contradictions and dark honesty that goes against what any normal person would think makes the Joker stick in our minds, making it easy for him to leave a major impact. Even outside the comic book sphere, he most certainly has, and today we’re going to be looking at one big impact the devilish clown has had in his quotes. I guarantee you that everyone, even non-comic book fans, has heard at least one of these, given how insanely often you see a random Joker quote floating around. So, without further ado, let’s look at Joker’s ten most iconic quotes from the comics.
10) “I LOVE MY JOB!” (Salvation Run #6)
“Pain is my One True Love! I admire your willingness to do violence, Lex. Because you have no problem doing it when you have to. But I’m different, Lex. I do violence because it’s fun! You’re good at your job, Lex. But me? I LOVE MY JOB!”
Salvation Run showed all of Earth’s supervillains being stuck together, and while Lex Luthor tried to take charge and get them out of their situation, in his eyes, the Joker only made everything worse. The two eventually came to blows, with Lex screaming that the Joker contributed nothing and never accomplished anything, while Joker let out this quote.
He firmly established that he didn’t care about Lex’s grand plans of conquest, he was a villain for the love of the game, and that’s the real line that separates them. Lex is a villain because he has goals and ambitions, but the Joker’s ambitions are to be a villain. He thoroughly enjoys every evil action he takes, and that is perfectly in character for him, while showing why both he and Lex work in different ways.
9) “Once he came back…” (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #68)
“Oh, Rebecca, I’m so sorry! I didn’t want to go away! I didn’t want to leave you alone! But I had to do it, don’t you see? Had to push the sight of you, the scent of you, the heart and soul of you away! Blot you out, drive you down! Obliterate you! Because–once he came back… I had to come back… too.”
This quote came after the Joker thought he killed Batman, and with no one left to torment, he went on to live a normal life. He named himself Joseph Kerr and fell in love with a woman named Rebecca. For a while, it seemed like the Joker really had gone sane, but every night he was plagued by dreams of who he used to be. Once Batman returned, Joseph could no longer ignore the call of the monster that lived inside him, and became Joker once more.
This is perhaps the Joker’s most tragic quote because it highlights how much he hates being the monster that he is and how desperate he is to change, but can’t bring himself to. He’s forever tied himself to Batman, and not even he can make himself let go. It’s haunting, tragic, and sad to consider.
8) “As easy as beating a puppy…” (Injustice: Gods Among Us #4)
“It was as easy as beating a puppy to death with a kitten.”
After the Joker tricked Superman into killing a pregnant Lois Lane and inadvertently setting off the nuke that destroyed Metropolis, Batman questioned how the Joker could do it. The Harlequin of Hate said that he wanted to play on easy mode, fighting Superman, and compared it with this horrible quote.
The Joker murdered millions, dunked Superman’s head in Lois’s blood, and carried on with a smile on his face. This quote and context show the most sadistic parts of Joker’s personality, letting us know exactly how cruel and twisted he is. To him, these acts of cruelty are as casual as walking down the street.
7) “Isn’t it IRONIC?” (Batman #663)
“Both of us trying to find meaning in a meaningless world! Why be a disfigured outcast when I can be a notorious Crime God? Why be an orphaned boy when you can be a superhero? You can’t kill me without becoming like me. I can’t kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me. Isn’t it IRONIC?!”
The Joker’s obsession with Batman is his most defining trait, especially with how he abuses the Caped Crusader’s nature in their relationship. Joker knows that Batman isn’t willing to kill him, so he keeps pushing and pushing, and while he’s normally trying to break Batman or make him realize something, here he’s calling out how there is no real point to anything, even what he believes.
The Joker is as monstrous as he is because he genuinely believes that nothing matters, and he is trying to find a way to live with that, and to him, the answer must be laughing at all the pain. So, he keeps causing pain so he can keep laughing. This is a look into the clown’s twisted mind and how he rationalizes the endless atrocities.
6) “Your stubborn, bone-deep conviction…” (Batman #680)
“The real joke is your stubborn, bone-deep conviction that somehow, somewhere, all of this makes sense! That’s what cracks me up each time!”
Going along with the previous quote, this one is another look into the Joker’s mind, but this time, how he views Batman. The Joker is a nihilist who is desperate to prove that nothing matters, which is why he’s so obsessed with Batman, because everything and everyone matters to the Dark Knight. Batman goes out to save lives and fight crime due to his endless compassion, the belief that there is an inherent goodness in the world that must be preserved.
That thought is the antithesis to everything the Joker stands for, and seeing Batman go through everything he’s put through and still refuse to break only makes the Joker love and hate him more, because it convinces him that Bats is just as crazy as him.
5) “I finally killed Batman!” (Batman #655)
“I did it! I finally killed Batman! In front of a bunch of vulnerable, disabled kids!!! Now get me Santa Claus!”
This issue opened with the Joker killing an imposter Batman in front of several children he took hostage. When he thought he finally did the Dark Knight in, he couldn’t help but gloat to the extreme, which only goes to reinforce how utterly twisted he is. He kills the hero of Gotham City in front of a bunch of children, and he immediately jumps to what could make the light behind their eyes die even more.
The clown didn’t even hesitate or revel in his victory; all he wanted was to make those kids lose as much hope and cause as much trauma as he could as quickly as he could. It’s horrible, horrific, and also very darkly hilarious, which is everything an iconic Joker quote should be.
4) “Kid… I’m the Joker.” (Batman #686)
“Kid… I’m the Joker. I don’t just randomly kill people. I kill people when it’s funny. What would be conceivably funny about killing you?”
The Joker wanted his car watched, so he offered to pay a random guy twenty bucks. The guy obviously thought the mass murdering serial killer would murder him, but then Joker hit him with this quote. It’s a perfect example that while the Joker is a monster who is willing to kill anybody and everybody the second he gets the urge, there’s a monstrous logic to it. He’s a clown, so he follows a theme and only kills when it’d be funny, to him, if nobody else.
That logic is essential to Joker’s character, because without that comedic unpredictability, he falls flat and just murders everyone. Without it, if you see Joker on screen with someone, you just immediately assume they’re dead, and that sucks all the tension and emotional weight from the scenes. Comedy that only he finds funny is an essential part of his character.
3) “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” (Batman: The Killing Joke)
“I mean, what is it with you? What made you what you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob, maybe? Brother carved up by some mugger? Something like that, I bet. Something like that… Something like that happened to me, you know. I… I’m not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another… If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha!”
One of the longest-standing mysteries in comics is the Joker’s real identity, as nobody knows who he was before he fell into that vat of chemicals. Frankly, it hasn’t been solved because the Joker works best as a character with no backstory. He can be anyone, be from anywhere, and that elevates him into something bigger and scarier than if we knew who he was.
This quote not only leaves that intact, but offers a perfect example of what the Joker thinks about his origin: nothing. He’s too insane to remember, and in his delusion has convinced himself he doesn’t want to know, because if he knew his past, it could hurt him. He knows something terrible drove him here, but he relishes the mystery of anonymity, just like how it connects him to Batman in this moment.
2) “I’m an American criminal lunatic!” (Batman & Captain America)
“I may be a criminal lunatic, but I’m an American criminal lunatic!”
When you think of the Joker’s dedication to ruining everything good and how he revels in the despair of others, you’d think that he’d appreciate other people of the same mindset. However, in this crossover, when Joker discovers that he’d been working with an actual Nazi in Red Skull, he loses it and tries to kill him.
To be clear, the Joker had been partnered with Red Skull for a while and had no qualms about what he was doing, only that he was a Nazi, which makes this reaction even funnier. It’s out of left field and utterly baffling when you really consider the Joker draws lines like that, but that’s what makes it so great. Even the Joker hates Nazis, and on some level, I guess he’s patriotic. You’d expect neither, and I love it.
1) “Just one bad day.” (Batman: The Killing Joke)
“I’ve proved my point. I’ve demonstrated there’s no difference between me and everyone else! All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once, am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up like a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else… Only you won’t admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there’s some point to all this struggling! God, you make me want to puke.”
This is easily the most famous Joker quote from the comics. It perfectly captures the Joker’s philosophy, his insistence that nothing he does matters because anyone would do what he does if they were in his shoes. It also shows exactly why he hates Batman, given that the Dark Knight refuses to accept his perspective.
This is Joker at his most philosophical, insisting that he understands humanity better than anyone else possibly could, while at the same time focusing on his extreme hatred above everything else. The entire ideology of the Joker is that he’s the sane and rational one, and if he’s wrong about this one thing, then he has to be responsible for every atrocity he’s ever done, and he can’t live with that. So he blames one bad day.
And there we have the ten most iconic Joker quotes from the comic books. There are plenty more awesome quotes that could top this list, especially if we opened up the doors to adaptations. We’ve all heard about how the Joker is afraid of the IRS and how we live in a society, I’m sure. Which Joker quote is your favorite? What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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